The runes! On his back! On his chest! On his arm! All of my questions!! ARE BECOMING MORE QUESTIONS!

What does it all mean? Why do they have so many runes on them? Why are their runes trying to kill them? How does working help push back malicious arm-runes? Why are their arm runes different to their chest and back runes? How many MORE runes do they have? HOW do they utilise these runes without the ability to runewrite?

The 'world gets sicker'? Are there more aberrants than there were before? How are aberrants born or formed? (I feel like that one's already been answered somewhere...) Or is he talking about how runewriters can now become 'tainted'? Still wondering how that happens and for how long it has been happening.

THESE ARE GREAT QUESTIONS :>
the only one I'm gonna answer for now is that no one in the comic has yet addressed definitively where aberrants come from! That one aberrant hunter in Ch One mentioned stories of runewriters becoming aberrants, and Sev was pretty adamant that those stories were made up, but that's pretty much all we have!

*QUENTIN ARE YOU GONNA DIE-?!*
Toning the dramatics down though...that rune thing does not look good. Did overworking cause the magic markings to expand? Hmmmm...I'm excited for how this (possibly fatal, but let's uh, hope not) mystery plays out as...
((I know they're all cultists with mysterious motives, but I'm still rooting for the Agorath Order for some reason?))

Is anyone else wondering what Esra means by "too close for comfort"? Is our brilliant and lovable Agorath nutcase in danger? (When it reaches his heart, is he gonna die? Please don't die. I would cry.)

Yeahhhhhh that white marking on his back is definitely similar to or the same as the one on the back of our mysterious albino lady... So does that mean he can also reflect/repell rune-casts? A defense mechanism, in exchange for whatever cost that brand exacts at its endpoint...

OH! Is the mark an extension of their oaths? Like, he swore on the mark to "never rest" in his pursuit of their "unspeakable problem" then it "motivates" them, like the blood oath? Thats why Esra is fine right now, he already worked enough to keep the mark happy.